Course Materials Cost Estimator

Contents

• Objective
• Cost Estimation
• Deltas
• Instructions for Use
• HEOA Spreadsheet
• Notes

Objective

The objective of this tool is to efficiently estimate the cost of ownership for new materials required for all sections of all courses.

This tool is focused on identifying classes with no or low cost materials, use care for other purposes.

Cost Estimation

• The tool reads an HEOA spreadsheet and totals the cost of ownership for new materials, per section, for all courses
• Materials may be textbooks, digital media, or any other supporting item
• The highest cost of any given material is used. For example, if there are three options for the same book, the most expensive is used in case that is the only item available.
• The tool tries to identify duplicate items. If there are two books, The Instruction Book and Instruction Book, the tool will consider them the same because the important words in the title are Instruction and Book. Instruction Book and Book Instruction are presumed to be different because the words are in a different order.
• The accuracy of the estimation will vary based on the materials - items such as clothing where multiple sizes are listed may not be accurately calculated.
• Items with the word subscription in the title will not be included in estimates because the student does not own them
• eBooks listed as Web are assumed to be subscriptions and are not included, unless no other materials are specified
• Materials listed as Downloadable are included as ownership is implied
• Include a disclaimer with the results, for example: Be sure to check the bookstore site, and consult with the instructor for the class prior to registration.

Deltas

The estimator includes a local store delta check.

Each time the cost of materials is estimated, the costs are stored locally. The next time the tool runs, it will add the text changed to any class that has been added or has a different cost of materials.

If a class has been removed from the HEOA file, its absence will not be noted.

Instructions For Use

HEOA Spreadsheet

Contact your bookstore manager to get the HEOA spreadsheet, or FTP credentials.

• If you have an HEOA spreadsheet, upload the file
• If you have FTP credentials for the HEOA feed, enter them and click Go
• A preview of the spreadsheet is displayed, whether you uploaded it or got it from the feed. The preview allows you to quickly check whether the file you're working with is the one you expected, it shows every row of data, but not every cell in the row.

Downloading the estimated cost of materials

The Download button will deliver a spreadsheet with the estimated cost of materials for all sections in the HEOA file. You may open it or download it.

Cost Estimation Spreadsheet

The cost estimation spreadsheet includes all the classes in the HEOA spreadsheet. Use the CRN number for class identification.

There is no evaluation mechanism in the spreadsheet. The data may be analyzed any way.

Filtering

The spreadsheet can be filtered to make it easier to see which sections have changed since the last time the spreadsheet was created.

1. Click on the Data tab and select column I
   
2. Click on Filter
   
3. Set the filter to only display rows with the value changed in column I
   

Highlighting

You may use Conditional Formatting to highlight rows in the spreadsheet. These instructions describe how to emphasize the courses with an estimated material cost of less than $40.

1. Select column D
   
2. Click on Conditional Formatting
   
3. Choose how you would like to highlight the estimated cost of materials
   
4. Example display
   

The spreadsheet can not be styled or customized further without a paid license. Ref: https://gist.github.com/SheetJSDev/24b8acd317d01999d721b38de7c53021

Notes

Notes in the HEOA file are included in the output, they may be preceded by additional notes as follows:

1. No materials - no materials are listed for the section, which implies the cost of materials is zero
2. *** One or more of the materials is a CHOICE *** - the total cost of materials will not exceed the value shown, but it is likely less.

Credits

• https://github.com/bencodezen/vue-enterprise-boilerplate
• https://github.com/SheetJS/sheetjs
• https://vue-xlsx.netlify.app/

Source

• https://github.com/bgamrat/nolo

Development Workflow

clone/download

yarn install
yarn dev --open

Update deploy.sh before use